This is a very rough draft of an old story, I wanted
to interview Rocco about how he changed things up in
the Industry and this was going to be the humorous
intro.

Back in the early 90s the skateboard industry
consisted of a handful of really big companies 
Powell, Vision, Santa Cruz, and Tracker to name a few.
Very few skateboarders had their own companies and pro
models were bestowed upon only the most seasoned
skaters, or at least the most connected. It was about
this time that a freestyle skater named Rocco decided
to take matters into his own hands. So out of a
friend's kitchen (that was doubling as his bedroom)
and with a little start up capital from a shady
character, Santa Monica Airlines Rocco Division was
born. It didn't take long for the trouble to begin.
SMA was a name already owned by Santa Cruz
skateboards. Thus SMA became SMA World Industries and
eventually dropped the SMA altogether. Rocco was well
versed in how "the industry" was set up, and knew it
was time for a World Industrial revolution. This
subversive philosophy and the fact that Mark Gonzales,
Mike Vallely and Natas Kaupas had all jumped ship to
join his fledgling company immediately gained my
support along with thousands of skateboarders just
like me. The big companies didn't understand what
skateboarders were about, and Rocco did. So with
World, Blind, and 101, Rocco set forth to forever
change the way skateboarders and skateboarding would
do business.

A few years later I was a college drop out living at
home. I just wanted to skate. I had been in art
school, so with what little knowledge I had, I built a
skateboard press, started pressing and selling decks.
Two friends of mine were in the same boat, but instead
of making boards, they started stealing stamps from
postal vending machines (subsequently arrested by the
FBI). I should be careful how I word this, but I
started receiving large quantities of postage in the
mail from an unknown source. At this point World
Industries had taken over the market, the top pros
that had helped establish Rocco were now following his
lead and starting their own companies. World
Industries had become what I thought they had fought
against. A big company cranking out a poor quality
product with ripped off graphics. So with limitless
postage I decided to let them know how I felt.

I started my letter and postcard campaign with benign
nonsensical content. I think it got to the point where
I was sending 25-50 pieces a day, lets face it, I was
bored. The first response I received was from the
heavy metal receptionist J. D. It was simple and the
point, "Neil you are going to swim with the fishes."
For a while the exchanges were pretty humorous,
mostly mob style death threats. But I was genuinely
upset with the product World was putting out so I
started being more up front. I took a World deck and
sawed it into one-inch squares and packed it into a
tiny box. On top of the pieces I put a wallet and
inside the wallet I put a note, " you won't find any
money in here I spent it all on your shit product".
Sal Rocco was in charge of shipping and opened the
package, and of course went straight for the wallet,
needless to say I had my first real enemy. Next I sent
a letter to the artist at World about how uncreative
he was. Then the phone rang on a Saturday afternoon.
It was McKee and he was pissed, enemy number two.
Next I decided to create a rip off World logo calling
myself Not World Industries. I made a couple stickers
a vowed in a letter to Rocco that every graphic he
ripped off I was going to immediately copy and sell in
the south east, like a bootleg operation. (of course
there was no chance of this since my max production
was 10 boards a week, and I had no idea how screen
print) Still to this day I don't know if Rocco really
gave a shit or was just having some fun, but the phone
call went like this "Neil, this is Steve Rocco and I
am going to ruin your life." Well I pissed my pants.
I was scared and didn't know what the fuck to do.
Rocco said he was going to place a bounty on my
humiliation and run a full-page ad with my address. I
started to think about legal representation. I was
terrified. The next day the phone rang and it was a
girl. It didn't seem right, because - well girls don't
call me. She said she saw me somewhere and thought I
was cute and all this bullshit, I just said, "Ha, Ha,
tell Steve I said hello and you are not a very nice
person" As I suspected it was a girl from World. What
I hadn't expected was she became my only friend at
World Industries. Luckily Rocco was happy to know how
much he had fucked with me and let it all go.

A few months later Rocco took the team on tour. The
closest date was six hours away in Florida, so I drove
down. That six-hour drive ended up being my savior
since Rocco had checked the map for my house and
decided it was too far to go just to egg the place. I
was happy he didn't slip some jock a hundred bucks
just to kick my ass.